Chương 267: Hard Choices to Make
"I apologize that I am late today Lord Yoshiro and the other clan leaders." Elder Wu bowed to the clan leaders.
"You were busy doing something for us Elder Wu. Do not apologize for something like this. I assume you are here which means you have some findings you want to tell us about." Asami said. She was a clan leader but still younger than Elder Wu so she couldn't just accept the apology.
Elder Wu nodded and took out a stack of paper from his jacket and placed them on the table in front of the clan leaders. He first gave the leaders a paper that had points on different places. The 2 clan leaders were confused as to what this was but the other 2 who were there at the coast understood what this was.
"I was just thinking that we missed such an important thing." Riko said as he saw that.
"Riko do you know what this is?" Yoshiro asked to which Riko nodded and said "Kakashi Hatake had ordered Shiro to plot all the locations where the weapon was found on a piece of paper. As he didn't do it until we left, we didn't have the plotted paper but looks like Elder Wu also did the same thing. Now we won't have to wonder if the location of the weapons has any meaning or not."
"If it did then it would definitely be a big clue." Asami said.
Elder Wu shook his head and said "I raked my brain over it for a few hours but I couldn't find anything. Either the location of the weapons has no hidden message or whatever it is can only be found out by the ones who know the one making it. But I did who the blood and the weapons belong to."
"Just give me the good news and say that it belongs to the shinobis of the Mizukage faction." Riko said smirking and rubbing his hands against each other in excitement.
Elder Wu nodded and said "You are right about that as the blood is from the shinobis of the Mizukage faction but not normal shinobis as you think."
"Are you saying it is from the Anbu? I didn't think they would personally move against the genjutsu demon. They will be one of the main fighting forces against us so why send them behind one person?"
"No…it isn't the Anbu but the infamous blood squad. The weapons are the perfect match." Elder Wu said. This news was shocking to everyone as the blood squad was someone everybody feared. The bloodline clans knew that it was the squad that slaughtered the bloodline clans all these years and each one of them is strong enough to defeat 10 Anbu.
"Elder Wu, that is a very dangerous conclusion you have come up with. Are you sure about this? Do you have any proof?"
Elder Wu then took out another sheet of paper and pushed it in front of the clan leaders and said "This was one of the weapons that we found there. This belongs to Hari, Moji's right-hand man and one of the two leaders of the blood squad."
"You are saying that Hari and the blood squad were at the coast and it's their weapons and blood that have dyed the coast red?" Yoshiro asked. As this was a very big and dangerous claim, he wanted Elder Wu to be sure about this.
"I am 100% sure that it's his weapon. As far as I see the other weapons I can presume that almost half of the blood squad died there." Elder Wu said with a smile.
"If the genjutsu demon has truly killed off half of the blood squad then Moji must be pulling out his hairs right now…Haha" Asami said as she enjoyed the news Elder Wu just gave them.
"Let's not believe anything just because the clues point towards them. It could also be their strategy to make us drop our guard or even launch an attack.
"But if there is a chance that this is true then we must do something about it. How can we not take advantage of such a big event?" Riko asked. The fire in him to fight the Mizukage faction had lit again.
Yoshiro and the old man looked at each other at the same time for a few seconds and nodded at the same time. Yoshiro looked at Mei and said "Mei prepare everyone. On the day of the prisoner exchange, we will strike the Mizukage faction."
"Father are you sure about this? We still don't know what their intention is during the prisoner exchange." Mei asked in a worried tone. At first, they were worried that the Mizukage faction will launch an attack unprovoked but now they were planning on doing the same thing.
"Mei…I have seen more than enough people die at the hands of those Mizukage faction shinobis than I ever want to see. I can't take chances now. Even if we see a small sign of weakness from the Mizukage faction then we attack. That isn't the most honorable way but the best way to keep our loved ones alive." Yoshiro said as he stood up and looked at the other clan leaders. Riko immediately stood up showing his agreement to the plan and the old man stood up as well.
Seeing Asami hesitate a little the old man said "Asami sometimes being a leader isn't about taking the right decisions but the hard ones."
Asami thought for a few seconds and stood up from her chair as well. She looked at Mei and said "I am sorry Mei but I can't let any of my clan mates die at the hands of those Mizukage faction bastards."
Mei wasn't too hurt by the decision as she knew the current situation and the amount of moral boost the death of half the blood squad will give to the bloodline clan shinobis.
"Should we keep the leaf shinobis in the loop regarding this decision of ours?" Asami asked the old man.
"I don't think we should." Riko quickly answered. He didn't like the hidden leaf snooping in the matters of the bloodline clans. He didn't wait for anyone to ask for his statement's reason and said "As the old man said, Kakashi Hatake already knows the identity of the genjutsu demon before he came here. If he can keep things from us then so can we."
"But we can't keep them in the dark completely. The 5th Hokage has sent them to help us and we should honor our talks." Asami said. Seeing that two clan leaders were on opposite sides of the same issue everyone was confused as to how the problem will be solved. Everyone knew that the only one who could do that was the old man.
The old man chuckled and said "Look at you two…still fighting like kids even after all these years. Let's meet in the middle about this. We need the hidden leaf as our ally even if we win as we will be an extremely weak and easy target for the hidden stone. And I agree with Riko that Kakashi Hatake has kept us in the dark so we will tell the leaf shinobis that we are ready to launch an attack if the Mizukage faction shows any sign of aggression. We will tell them on the day of the exchange so that they won't have enough time to convince us to back out of this."
"That does seem like a fair and neutral decision on this matter " Yoshiro said and signaled AO to come to him. AO walked near Yoshiro who leaned toward him and whispered something.
"See Yoshiro has already started with the preparation. Let's do the same as well. This time it's do-or-die and we don't have a chance to back out now. So don't hold back." The old man said and within the next few minutes, all the clan leaders left the room.
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The Red Coast (in the afternoon)
"Why are we here? Are we really guarding this place?" A masked man asked another as they were sitting on top of a tree. The other masked man nodded and said "I don't know why but Shiro wanted us to guard this place and not let anyone over here touch a single stone from here. So let's just stay here till tonight and then the other two will take our shifts."
"You both need to be alert." A voice came from behind them. They quickly pulled out their weapons and looked back "Kakashi-Sama…w-we are sorry." One of the masked men said as they didn't even notice when Kakashi came and stood behind them. Even though the three of them were of the same age, Kakashi was much superior in strength and experience so they had to treat him with respect.
"You guys have not moved anything from here right?" Kakashi asked to which both the men nodded.
Kakashi then looked at the red coast and the weapons that were spread out and said "Now Yami let's see what you have left for me here."
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